Tracing the Spice Trade from Ceremony to Culinary Uses

Want to learn more about the spice trade? Read along as I explore its origination.

We all remember learning about the spice trade in history class, when Portuguese, Dutch, and British ships sailed the waterways in search the best routes to bring the lucrative spices back to their home ports. Since we’ve spent much of our time in the same waters, it has been fascinating to learn the history of how the spices traveled from this part of the world on big sailing ships to end up in the little tin or jar of spices in our kitchen cabinets.

I sat down with Dr. Bryan Babcock, Viking Sky’s resident historian, to ask him why spices were such a valuable commodity. He explained that the desire for spices started way before Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus. “While we don’t know exactly how spices came to be so valued, we know they were important for religious, ceremonial, medical, and food flavoring and preservation.” Salt mines have been discovered dating back to 5000 BCE and we know salt as a preservation agent, from meat to fish, salt dries the food for a longer shelf life. Turmeric, as popular today as it was thousands of years ago, has anti-inflammatory properties that made it a valuable medicinal spice. And, in religious ceremonies, from mummification to incense burning, spices were crucial to the practices.

“There are biblical references to many spices we still value today, from cinnamon to turmeric to frankincense. As early as 1000 BCE there was a thriving spice trade,” says Babcock. “There are ancient Egyptian medical texts describing various uses for the spices and herbs we still use today. Cleopatra was particularly fond of cinnamon and saffron, and it is said she bathed in saffron-infused water and used cinnamon to make cosmetics and perfume that helped to seduce Caesar and Marc Antony.”

While spices have been around for thousands of years, it was the Portuguese and Dutch who introduced Europeans to them. The explorers were interested in trade and set up ports around the Indian Ocean to serve as warehouses to house the precious commodities. These early exploders were more interested in trade than land, but the Brits and the French were interested in acquiring land and controlling the trade routes. The British learned to cultivate the indigenous plants to increase production and spread it throughout the region to reduce competition and to increase profits.

Why were spices so highly valued? “In Europe, spices were synonymous with wealth and became a status symbol. If you could afford spices, you had arrived,” says Babcock. Today, thanks to big corporations like McCormick and International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), spices are readily available (and relatively inexpensive compared to what early Europeans paid) to satisfy a wide variety of culinary applications.

Because we were in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, let’s highlight a couple of my favorite spices and their culinary and medical value.

In Sri Lanka, we visited an island on the Matu River called “Cinnamon Island.” Cinnamon is an evergreen tree, native to Sri Lanka and we watched as the cinnamon was peeled from the tree limb in long spirals and left to dry, producing the cinnamon stick that we are familiar with. It can also be ground to produce powdered cinnamon and we were served cinnamon tea, basically ground cinnamon steeped in boiling water. Cinnamon is thought to be anti-inflammatory, reduce nerve pain, and lower blood sugar.

Today, cinnamon is sold as a dietary supplement for diabetes and weight loss, but the evidence is weak and higher quality research studies are needed. Cinnamon as used as spice and flavor enhancer is common and delicious…I grew up on cinnamon toast for breakfast and I like adding cinnamon to coffee. However, stay clear of TikTok challenges, such as the cinnamon challenge, which encouraged young people to swallow a tablespoon of dry cinnamon powder in less than one minute. A dumb thing to do as it can be inhaled into the lungs resulting in difficulty breathing and in extreme cases, pneumonia.

Turmeric is another spice native to Southeast Asia and India. It is in the ginger family and its root is valued for its deep yellow-orange powder used in Asian curries and as a food coloring in many foods, including mustard. In recent years, researchers have found that the deep color is due to the presence of curcumin. Research on curcumin shows that it is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory and some research studies find it useful for indigestion and arthritis. Instead of supplements, try using the spice in your culinary creations, as it is better absorbed when taken with food than as a supplement.

When I get home, I am going to up my culinary game by cooking with more of the spices I’ve encountered on this journey!

Thanks to Dr. Bryan Babcock, Viking Sky Resident Historian, for sharing the story of the spice trade with me.